2020 International and Intensive Program on Buddhism at Princeton University

 

2020 Glorisun International & Intensive Program on Buddhism – REVISED

(June 26–July 15; ONLINE, in collaboration with Princeton University)

 

The Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies, whose founding members include Peking University, UBC, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, U Hamburg, Cambridge and Oxford, cordially invites applications for an intensive program on Buddhist Studies. Lasting from June 26 to July 15, 2020, this program is composed of two segments: Segment 1 from June 26 to July 6 and Segment 2 from July 7 to July 15, which are connected by an intersegmental conference (July 4–6; detailed below).

 

 

 

 

The backbone of this program consists of several lectures and lecture series delivered by international scholars:

• Anne BLACKBURN (Cornell): “Making Buddhist Kingdoms in an Indian Ocean World, 1200-1500”;
• Imre GALAMBOS (Cambridge): Tradition, innovation and interaction: Buddhist manuscript culture in medieval China (Lecture Series; Segment 1);
• Ulrike ROESLER (Oxford): “Monasteries and Geomancy in Tibet: The Case of Reting Monastery”;
• SHENG Kai 聖凱 (Tsing-hua University  清華): “Meliorism, Concretization, and Ritualization: Three Historical Characteristics of the Faith Construction in Chinese Buddhism” 淑世主義、具象化與禮制化：漢傳佛教信仰建構的三種歷史特質;
• Jacqueline STONE (Princeton): “The Buddhahood of Ordinary People: Rethinking the Path in Japanese Tendai and Nichiren”;
• Stephen TEISER (Princeton): Medieval Chinese Buddhist Ritual (Lecture Series; Segment 2);
• Eugene WANG (Harvard): Buddhist Art of China (Lecture Series; Segment 2);
• ✟ Stefano ZACCHETTI (Oxford): From Dao’an to Kumārajiīva: translation and exegesis in early Chinese Buddhism (4th-5th centuries) (Lecture Series; Segment 2);
• ZHAN Ru (Peking University) & CHEN Jinhua (UBC): Transborder and Transcultural Transmission of Buddhism: New Evidence and Perspectives (Lecture Series; Segment 1).

The intersegmental conference (scheduled for July 4–6) for this year’s intensive program is one of three that will honor the work of late Dr. Antonino Forte. The theme will focus on The Transmission of Buddhism in Asia and beyond, and will highlight exacting, pioneering scholarship about how the teachings and practices of Buddhism were communicated, shared, and applied by diverse groups and individuals along the so-called Silk Roads—or western regions in Chinese—across time and space. The conference will bring together 20–25 top scholars from all over the world. Student participants are encouraged to attend and, if they have relevant papers, present at the conference. Details of the conference are available here.

In addition to participating in these lectures and the intersegmental conference, student participants are also encouraged to present their research papers to their program instructors, lecturers, and their peer participants. Participants are required to take part in all of the activities supported by the program, including the lecture series, the conference, and student forum. Outstanding students may be selected and invited to carry out short-term (3–12 months long) research at UBC and UBC’s partner universities in East Asia, Europe and North America that are linked together through a large SSHRC-sponsored international and interdisciplinary project on Buddhism and East Asian Religions (frogbear.org). This may further bring them the opportunity of pursuing doctoral degrees or doing postdoctoral research at these top universities.

Senior undergraduate students and graduate students specializing in any Buddhist tradition(s), and postdoctoral fellows working on relevant fields, are encouraged to apply. Please direct applications and inquiries to FrogBear.Project@ubc.ca. Each application should include (1) an application form (to be provided upon request via the above email address), (2) updated curriculum vitae, (3) one writing sample, and (4) a reference letter (to be emailed by the referee directly to the above email address). Priority will be given to those applicants who are able to participate in both segments, although applications may also be considered from applicants who can only take part in one segment due to compelling reasons. Given the current pandemic situation globally and particularly in the US, we will be delivering the intensive program online, mostly likely using Zoom. More details will be provided at a closer date. Please send in your applications by May 15, 2020.

To guarantee sufficient interaction of student participants with instructors and between student participants themselves, student enrollment is limited to 30. There are no administration or tuition fees.

If the COVID-19 crisis has calmed down by the end of 2020, excellent participants may be invited to spend (physically!) a week at Princeton after the intensive program.